Chifley Joseph Benedict - JB Chifley: an ardent internationalist

JB Chifley

An ardent internationalist

Julie Suares

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING

An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited

Level 1, 715 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

www.mup.com.au

First published 2019

Text Julie Suares

Design and typography Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2019

This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.

Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.

Text design by Phil Campbell

Cover design by Phil Campbell

Typeset by J&M Typesetting

Printed in Australia by OPUS Group

9780522874709 (paperback)

9780522874693 (hardback)

9780522874716 (ebook)

Portrait of Prime Minister Ben Chifley,
courtesy National Library of Australia.

This book is dedicated to the memory of my dear mother, Leila.

I would like to thank my sister Lyn and my step-father Richardwho voted for Chifley because Chifley was of the people and he did what he said hed dofor their support and their friendship. Thank you to Lyn for putting up with my distracted behaviour and the books littered throughout the lounge-room. She has been a great source of strength to me.

Thank you also to my niece Jessie and her partner Andrew and their children Anna, Jack and Gos for their inspiration and encouragement. Thank you, Anna, Jack and Gos for your cards wishing me the best. I kept them on my desk as I worked. AnnaI will treasure my heart-flower always. Also my aunt Nadine and uncle Ronald (who sadly passed away recently). Without the love and supportand forbearanceof my family and friends, I would not have been able to complete this book.

Associate Professor Christopher Waters has been extraordinarily generous with his time and his patience. His commitment to archival research is outstanding and a fine example to follow. His belief that I could actually complete this book has been especially reassuring. Associate Professor Helen Gardner has also been very supportive of my work.

To Professor Frank Bongiorno, Emeritus Professor Phillip Deery and Associate Professor Kent Fedorowich, thank you for your contribution to my work. I owe you all a special debt of gratitude.

Thank you also to Professor David Lowe for your support, and to Dr Meg Gurry, for being so helpful with the knowledge that you have shared. Thank you to the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin University for the support it has provided me.

Many thanks to Professor Janice Stargardt and to her son, Professor Nicholas Stargardt, for all the kind assistance they have provided, especially the many details about the life of AW Stargardt, together with a photo of him.

Thank you also to Professor Geoffrey Bolton and to Professor Duncan Waterson, who sadly have passed away, for the information they gave me.

Im very grateful to Professor Joy Damousi, commissioning editor of the History Series at Melbourne University Press, who invited me to submit a book proposal on Chifley and also Catherine McInnis, the editor of MUP Academic, who has been very helpful to me. My copy editor and indexer, Meryl Potter was an absolute delight to work with, providing me with many useful suggestions.

Thank you to Sarah Brown and the Brown family for their very generous Philip Brown Award for research into Australian history entailing the use of primary sources.

To all those friends who have inspired and supported me, sincere thanks to Joe and Julie; Christine and Peter; John and Carole; Sue and Frank; Nadine and Ronald; Colin; Michaela, Alex and Sam; Blair and Cath; Alex and Sonya; Margaret, Ran and Cath; Rick; Stefanie; Dianne; Mark and Fiona; Antony; Barry and Cheryl; Pat and Jenny; John and Jo; Jenny and Peter; Kate; John; Mary and Keith; Phil and Barbara; Phuong, Damien and Max; Michael and Linda; Craig and Nai; Leon; Ken; Kerry and Clem; Ian and Mary; Lis and Peter; Alwyn and Frank; Mary, Margaret and Gabrielle; Dot; Gerard; Glenda and Ken; Helen; Roberta; Joyce, Jim, Mick and Colin; Vicki-Claire; Anne and Greg; Tim and Alison; Ev; Jacinta; Andy; Robert; Travis; Lorraine; Pam and Peter; Julie and Jack; Belinda; Bob and Tim; Robyn and Bruce; Gayle; Greg and Kim; Muffy, Athol and Pam; Suzanne; Micky, Matt and Julian; Wendy and Rhonda. And Craig, thank you for my copy of Things Worth Fighting For. Thank you, Marion for my book, Ben Chifley: A Biography by LF Crisp.

I would like to thank the librarians at Deakin University Library, and the staff at Deakin Research for their very generous support. I am also grateful to the librarians and archivists at the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, the State Library of Victoria and the University of Melbourne Archives for all the assistance they have provided. Thank you also to Radhey Shyam, Deputy Librarian and Information Officer at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library for providing me with a copy of JN Sahnis article on his interview with Chifley.

To my doctor Novreen Rasool, the doctors and nurses at the Ararat Medical Centre and the Ararat Hospital; to the neurosurgeons, anaesthetists, doctors, nurses, workers and volunteers at the Royal Melbourne Hospitalthank you.

Araratwhere I liveis a railway town in regional Victoria. Thank you to the Ararat community for being so welcoming and inclusive.

AW Stargardt selected and compiled the collection of Chifleys speeches published as Things Worth Fighting For: Speeches by Joseph Benedict Chifley. Many thanks to Professor Janice Stargardt and to Janice and Wolfgangs son Professor Nicholas Stargardt for their gift of a photo of AW Stargardt and their kind permission for me to use it in my book on Chifley.

In June 1951, a delegation of Indian journalists visited Australia for the opening of the Australian federal parliament and to report on the Commonwealth jubilee celebrations commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the federation of Australia. Journalist JN Sahni, president of the Press Association of India, was a member of the delegation. After arriving in Darwin behind schedule, inclement weather and thick fog in Sydney forced the delegation to continue their journey to Canberra in a small Australian Holden. Sahni wrote that, travelling through rich undulating country, peppered with small towns, villages and scattered farm houses thick forests of gum and bush, lent an exotic colour to the landscape. During this trip to Canberra, Sahnis exuberant comments on the picturesqueness of the countryside met with reserve from his Australian driver, who it turned out was not a native of New South Wales, but a Tasmanian. Sahni noted that state loyalties in Australia die hard. He added: